Nash feels Whitley Bay deserved their three points

Julian Tyley

Whitley Bay manager Marc Nash felt his side did enough to earn the win over Dunston UTS at Hillheads on Saturday.

But it took an injury time winner from Callum Anderson to take all three points after Dunston had levelled Andy Robertson’s early Whitley Bay goal.

The visitors’ goal came from the penalty spot, but Bay keeper Tom Flynn kept his side in the game when he saved a second penalty awarded to Dunston.

Nash said: “I think we just about deserved the three points, even though we produced another late show.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start with Robbo’s [Andy Robertson] great piece of skill and finish.

“I think scoring so early affected our intensity as we sat back too much and allowed Dunston far too much time and space in possession.

“They didn’t create much but there was no way we were going to see out 85 minutes doing that.

“Towards the end of the half we started to dictate and Kempster should have scored when he got in to face the keeper, but it was a good save.

“We asked the players at half-time to try and press the ball higher up the pitch to stop the service into their front players, and we settled into that quite well, but we go and shoot ourselves in the foot again, losing possession in midfield and Ross [Wilkinson] has been hasty with his challenge which has led to yet another penalty.

“If anything, conceding the goal has woken us up and our intensity was back then Kyle Patton hit the bar as we were on top.

“The second penalty concession is a big disappointment as Callum Anderson needed to show patience but he’s dived in and fouled the lad, but thankfully Tom [Flynn] has rescued us with a fine double save from the penalty.

“That was a critical moment as it seemed to deflate Dunston and our tails were up knowing we’d just got off the hook.

“In the last 20 minutes Dunston’s back line looked tired so we put an extra forward on in Tom Potter, followed closely by Liam Brooks, and the pair seemed to make the difference along with Kempster now playing through the centre.

“Liam hit the post with his first touch and was so unlucky, but we kept knocking and we knew time was up when we got the corner, so all we could do was hope for a quality delivery and we got one from Potter and it’s won the game.

“It was important to back the win up against Bishops and we’ve done that so now we want to keep momentum until the end of the season.”